Audiobook: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

This is my second time reading The Lightning Thief, the first book in the Percy Jackson series. I remember reading it after my second son raved about it many years ago (he was an avid reader before I lost him to video games *sigh*). He absolutely devoured this book, followed by the rest of the series and anything else Riordan had written. *High five to Rick Riordan!!*

What I love about this series is how Riordan incorporates mythology into a gripping read featuring a fantastical group of characters and an exciting premise that follows a trio of tweens who set out on an epic quest. I particularly liked how characters from Greek mythology are woven into the story. Monsters, gods and epic powers? Oh my! 

Percy is a main character readers will easily get behind. He has a surprising lineage, an impressive amount of emotional baggage and a cool quest to keep things hopping. When you add in solid secondary characters and a good plot twist, this is a thrilling read for middle schoolers and adults too. (there is quite a strong similarity between this trio and Harry, Ron and Hermione from Harry Potter but it's not distracting).

This audiobook was narrated by Jesse Bernstein who does a great job, but I was a little distracted by his voice. He's a talented narrator, but I've listened to other books narrated by him and initially I kept hearing Auggie's voice (from Wonder by R.J Palacio) and Stewart (from We Are All Made of Molecules by Susin Nielsen) but it didn't take long before Jesse's voice became Percy's (and the other characters in this book). It was just initially disconcerting thinking Auggie was at Camp Half-Blood. ;)

If you haven't read this book yet, please don't judge this book on the travesty that was the movie from 2010 (or the follow-up in 2013). The book, particularly in this case, is much better. I hear that NetFlix is making a series featuring this book series - fingers crossed they'll get it right this time. 

If you or your middle schooler are looking for a fun series, you'll want to check out Percy Jackson. You simply can't go wrong with a story that has an adventure, mystery and mythology. Personally, I found it was a good way to use that knowledge I still had floating around in my cranium from the Mythology course I took in University that my dad said I'd never use. I understood all the mythology references, Dad! ;) I'm eager to continue reading this popular series as well as Riordan's other series that focus on different world mythologies.

My Rating: 4 stars

Author: Rick Riordan

Genre: Fantasy, Middle School

Series: #1 in Percy Jackson and the Olympians series

Type and Source: eAudiobook from public library

Run Time: 10 hours, 2 minutes

Narrator: Jesse Bernstein

Publisher: Random House Listening Library

First Published in Print: June 2005

Opening Line: Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.

Book Description from GoodReads: Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school...again. No matter how hard he tries, he can't seem to stay out of trouble. But can he really be expected to stand by and watch while a bully picks on his scrawny best friend? Or not defend himself against his pre-algebra teacher when she turns into a monster and tries to kill him? Of course, no one believes Percy about the monster incident; he's not even sure he believes himself.

Until the Minotaur chases him to summer camp.

Suddenly, mythical creatures seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. The gods of Mount Olympus, he's coming to realize, are very much alive in the 21st-century. And worse, he's angered a few of them: Zeus's master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.

Now Percy has just 10 days to find and return Zeus's stolen property, and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. On a daring road trip from their summer camp in New York to the gates of the Underworld in Los Angeles, Percy and his friends, one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena, will face a host of enemies determined to stop them. To succeed in his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of failure and betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.